The Ledger SA

Roads and infrastructure · Free State

Mangaung

Is the city maintaining and upgrading what it has?

Compare all eight metros: Roads and infrastructure. An asterisk marks a figure our automated checks found inconsistent with another official figure; it is shown as reported, explained in a footnote and left out of rankings.

Spending on what the city builds and keeps

Official: National Treasury · Data as of 2024-25 financial year (audited) · Last updated

Two of Treasury’s norms: spend 95% to 100% of the capital budget (new, renewed and upgraded assets), and spend about 8% of the value of property, plant and equipment on repairs and maintenance each year.

What these words mean
Capital budget
Money set aside to build, renew or upgrade things that last for years: pipes, roads, substations, clinics.
Adjusted budget
The budget after the council’s mid-year changes. Spending is measured against this one.
Repairs and maintenance
Spending to keep existing roads, pipes and buildings working. Treasury’s guideline is about 8% of what those assets are worth each year.
Property, plant and equipment
Everything physical a metro owns and uses: networks, roads, buildings, vehicles. Its value is the yardstick for maintenance.
Treasury norm
A target National Treasury sets for every municipality in MFMA Circular 71, so metros can be compared on the same scale.
Capital budget spent · 2023-24

59.8%

Treasury norm: 95% to 100%

Capital (new, renewed and upgraded assets) spent, as a share of the adjusted capital budget.

Source: National Treasury, Municipal Money; calculated with the Circular 71 formula.

Repairs and maintenance · 2024-25

2.9%*1

Treasury norm: 8%

Spending on repairs and maintenance as a share of the value of property, plant and equipment.

Source: National Treasury, Municipal Money; calculated with the Circular 71 formula.

  • *1 As reported to National Treasury. This figure is inconsistent with the Auditor-General's figure for the same year (2.1%) (it differs from that figure by 40%) and may be a reporting error.

Capital budget: spent vs planned

Official: National Treasury · Data as of 2024-25 financial year (audited) · Last updated

MetroYear to JuneOriginal budgetAdjusted budgetAudited spendMonthly reports
Mangaung2023R1.28bnR1.31bnR0.70bnR0.62bnunaudited, 12 of 12 months
Mangaung2024R1.15bnR0.96bnR0.57bnR0.55bnunaudited, 12 of 12 months
Mangaung2025R1.34bnNot yet publishedR0.82bnNot yet published

Source: National Treasury, Municipal Money, capital_v2 (new, renewal and upgrading of assets). Each amount links to its exact query. Audited spend is the audited actual. Monthly reports are the sum of the unaudited Section 71 monthly figures, for reference only. Automated checks: audited spend above 1.5 times the original budget, covering fewer than half the functions in the monthly reports, more than 25% away from the sum of 12 monthly reports, or more than 3 times (or under a third of) the year before; monthly figures with a single month above half the annual budget, or a large entry later reversed.

2025-26, unaudited: capital spending

Official: National Treasury, Section 71 (unaudited) · Data as of 30 June 2026 (2025-26, 12 of 12 months, unaudited) · Next update expected November 2026 (Treasury’s next quarterly Section 71 release)

66%

of its adjusted capital budget: Mangaung spent R933.2m of R1.42bn in the full year (preliminary) of 2025-26, as it reported to Treasury.

Unaudited: what each metro reported to National Treasury for the full year (preliminary) of 2025-26, to 30 June 2026. Capital spending here covers every kind of capital project, so it is wider than the audited “new, renewed and upgraded assets” measure above. The audited years stay the reference; these figures are not used in headlines. Source: Treasury’s summary of metros workbook (all files).

Infrastructure grants: given vs spent

Official: National Treasury, Municipal Money (spending unaudited) · Data as of 2025-26 financial year (spending unaudited) · Last updated

What these words mean
Infrastructure grants
Money national government gives metros for a set purpose, such as housing land and services or public transport. Unspent money can be taken back.

2023-24

Urban Settlements Development Grant (USDG)
YearAllocatedSpent
2023-24R513.4mR396.8m (77%)10 of 12 monthly reports
Public Transport Network Grant (PTNG)
YearAllocatedSpent
2023-24R170.0mR30.9m (18%)11 of 12 monthly reports
Neighbourhood Development Partnership Grant (NDPG)
YearAllocatedSpent
2023-24R16.9mR16.9m (100%)8 of 12 monthly reports

2025-26 so far

Urban Settlements Development Grant (USDG)
YearAllocatedSpent
2025-26R554.3mR328.5m (59%)8 of 12 monthly reports
Public Transport Network Grant (PTNG)
YearAllocatedSpent
2025-26R235.4mR37.3m (16%)9 of 12 monthly reports

USDG: Urban Settlements Development Grant (land, services and housing). PTNG: Public Transport Network Grant (bus rapid transit and other public transport). NDPG: Neighbourhood Development Partnership Grant. RBIG: Regional Bulk Infrastructure Grant (bulk water and sanitation). Spending is what the metro reported each month, added up; fewer than 12 reports means part of the year is missing, and one report can hold a whole year. Treasury’s dataset has no 2024-25 grant figures. Source: National Treasury, Municipal Money, grants.

Still to come on this page

  • Big projects: budget, progress and completion. Mangaung’s capital budget and annual report · no official source lists metro projects as data: Treasury publishes only totals, and project lists sit inside each metro’s budget and annual-report documents, in different layouts